


Duality

by igrab



Series: Relativity [3]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Episode: s02e04 Duet, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-05-04
Packaged: 2018-01-21 20:37:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1563245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/igrab/pseuds/igrab
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No, but really, Ronnie just didn't like how much time Jo had been spending with Ronoa Dex.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Duality

"Just so you know, Kaleb's really looking forward to your date tomorrow," Lieutenant Cadman said, out of the blue, and Ronnie almost fell flat on her face.

"Who?" she asked, to buy time, but she knew exactly who Cadman was talking about, unfortunately. Shit! That was a _date_? What the _hell_ \- 

"Kaleb Brown," Cadman said with a droll grin that said she wasn't buying Ronnie's feigned ignorance. Which just made her seem more guilty. Shit! Shit on a shit cracker!

"I, uh, yeah," Ronnie muttered, for two reasons - one, she wasn't about to explain to a Marine that she was already booked solid playing tonsil hockey with the _Lieutenant Colonel_ , and two, she was feeling unreasonably bitchy about that whole thing, today. Probably because Jo made her go off with the baby soldier and wimp doctor - though honestly that had never bothered her before because it usually meant Jo trusted her to take care of herself which was great and all but - 

No, but really, Ronnie just didn't like how much time Jo had been spending with Ronoa Dex. 

It wasn't like she was _insecure_ or anything (except for how she totally was, because this wasn't something she could think her way out of), but the facts were the facts. Ronoa was built like an Amazon, fought like a tiger, and still had curves that put Ronnie's own huge tracts of land to shame. And her _name_ was even similar, similar enough that she woke in a cold heaving sweat once because she'd had a nightmare that Jo had started calling Ronoa _Ron_.

Then her period had struck with ferocity not five hours later, which might have explained it, but she was still jealous. She couldn't help it. Ronoa was just so _perfect_ that it made Ronnie's teeth ache.

Which brought her to this, smiling (badly, but that wasn't new) and pretending that Kaleb's offer to cook her dinner sometime was _totally_ a date, that was definitely part of the plan. Dating botanists. Ugh, botanists.

But it was better than the alternative. Even if Cadman sometimes seemed like she'd be the understanding sort.

•

Cadman was not the understanding sort.

Okay, not like _that_ , which, _good_ , because it was weird enough, sharing a body. So weird. So _fucking_ weird. After a frenzied not-discussion with Heightmeyer (ugh, psychologists! worse than botanists!), Ronnie grudgingly submitted that Laura (it just felt weird, thinking of her as Cadman) was at least entitled to, well, ugh. Something. She'd figure it out later, okay? First things first, she needed to try and _fix this_.

Jo ran up to her as she was storming away from the lab, away from Radek and his dumb stupid _idiotic_ calculations (they were hers, she'd made those mistakes, _fuck_ ) and Laura was keeping thankfully quiet ( _thankfully_ ) because Johanna didn't seem to care how not-alone they were, when she put a hand on Ronnie's shoulder and got right up in her personal space.

"You okay?" she murmured, after hashing out that it wasn't her fault - which, _duh_ \- and she sounded like she meant it, which made Ronnie's heart do stupid things. 

"Tired," she mumbled, but that wasn't the right word at all. She was regretting every shred of vindictiveness she'd ever felt, because seriously, how could she doubt this? Jo was...

Jo was giving her bedroom eyes and saying "You should get some sleep," and they both knew that she was talking about, well. Not the kind of bed activity that even remotely involved REM.

 _I could actually use some rest, Rodney,_ Laura's voice said all of a sudden, and Ronnie went from zero to five hundred kinds of not okay. Mother _fucker_.

"She, uh," and Ronnie waved at her head, trying her damnedest to communicate via eyebrow how royally fucked up this was. "She says she's tired."

Jo's face when from 'oh' to ' _oh_ ' and then it sort of hardened over and she stepped back.

"Good night," she said, with a _finality_ to it, and what the fuck? What the actual fuck?

Ronnie stared after her for a long minute, until Laura started muttering again.

•

But, okay, that would've been one thing, but then Ronnie woke up in _someone else's bed_.

 _Naked_.

"You fuckhead!" she sputtered, flailing around and trying to keep herself covered.

 _Oh, please!_ Laura voice was lighthearted and carefree. _It's nothing I haven't seen before._ She laughed.

Straight girl laughter. Straight, popular girl laughter, because there was no doubt in Ronnie's mind that Laura had never once been anything but perfect in every way, that she'd never been the other girl with the uneven boobs and the bras that didn't fit and she'd never, ever had to feel that hot mix of shame and jealousy and arousal that Ronnie had somehow learned to live with. Never.

She dressed in a tense, angry silence, feeling Laura boil like something awful under her skin, and her whole horrible day was punctuated by pointed remarks about the _date_ and how _hopeless_ Ronnie was with _boys_ and how _nervous_ she'd been and did she even know how to wear makeup? Obviously, Ronnie needed Laura's _guidance_ , she needed her _help_.

 _I don't want your help_ , Ronnie thought desperately, but she didn't think _This isn't actually a date and I'm not actually interested_.

She tried to get Jo on the comms at least three times. Apparently, testing _Ronoa_ was more important than listening to her - 

But what was she, really? They hadn't actually _talked_ about this, not like normal people, and while Ronnie was totally okay with not being normal like, 90% of the time (maybe closer to 98%), this was not one of those times. She just desperately wanted to know where they stood, what was even going _on_ between them, because if she was honest with herself, this had never been just sex, not for her. Only, she'd done that thing where she just assumed, and now she didn't know how to ask for clarification without sounding stupid.

Laura bullied her way into the date.

Also, she'd invited Carson along, which, what? When? Oh, right, when she was busy _hijacking Ronnie's body_ and using it to be _naked_ and go _running_ and, apparently, invite people to other people's dates. Even though this wasn't a date.

Except it totally was, which kind of proved Laura's point that Ronnie knew nothing about guys, apparently. She made bad conversation and had bad arguments with Laura in her head, got her body hijacked ( _again_ ) and had to watch in horror as her own body _kissed_ someone (no, a _guy type someone_ , which was just _ew ew ew_ ) and where was Laura even getting all this shit? She didn't fucking want him, she wanted out, she wanted Jo, she wanted this stupid, miserable, body-sharing _crapfest_ to be over and _done with_.

•

Well.

Jo was probably going to straight up murder her, this time. _Probably_.

The silence in Dr. Heightmeyer's room was... intense. Loaded. Tense like a spring coil, full of potential energy and Ronnie wanted to throw up.

Laura had shrieked, in Ronnie's voice, "You're _gay_?!"

"For fuck's sake! Yes! And you fucking made me _kiss a man_ \- "

"I thought you were on a date! I thought you were into him!"

" _I said it was a date because I was trying not to out Colonel Sheppard_!"

And then, the silence. The tension. The shock on Heightmeyer's face, before she was able to master it with a professional mask. The... whatever the hell that was going on on Laura's side of the brainwave.

"Holy hell," she scraped out, and Ronnie could feel the lips move to make the words but she knew she would never have said this. "I, uh. Christ. That's."

"Yeah," Ronnie butted in.

"You - "

"Yeah."

"Since - "

"Fuck off, okay?" Ronnie snapped, though it was without heat, she was just too shaken and seriously, Johanna would _kill her_. "You're new here. You don't get it. The sun shines out the Colonel's perfectly round ass and all of Atlantis cowers before her greatness, so don't you _dare_ \- if you even _think_ about breathing a word of this - "

"Christ! I wouldn't do that, I would never, I'm just - the _Colonel_ \- "

" _This stays here! With us! Do you understand me!_ "

" _Of course it fucking d-_ "

And that was about when Ronnie thought, huh. I'm on the floor. Why am I on the floor?

Oh, hell.

•

Her one concession to keeping Ronnie's secret (or so Ronnie assumed, because otherwise that would make Laura an actual asshole and she didn't think she was, not really) was that her last act would be to hijack the body again ( _you fucker!_ Ronnie snapped at the inside of their head but then thought that, probably, that was a bad idea given the looming neural collapse) to kiss Carson Beckett, of all people. He had a beard! A _beard_!

 _Gross_ , she moaned inwardly, just before Laura released her and she had to stand there looking like an imbecile in front of the entire science staff and also Jo.

Yeah, if this worked, Laura was seriously, seriously in for it. Except that she knew Jo's secret, which. Damnit!

 _Ha ha,_ her voice crowed, and then they were being beamed out.

•

At some point, Johanna had stopped caring about Don't Ask Don't Tell.

It was probably going back to Earth that did it, she realized, as she chewed on Ronnie's mouth and chuckled at the way her hands ran all over Jo's body like she was desperate to know that she could have this. Or maybe, relieved that her hands were her own? Either way, it made Jo arch and sigh, and think. Just a little bit. Just enough to realize that she'd been very, very stupid.

See, Jo had stopped caring about DADT, because seeing Earth from the point of view of someone who had been to _space_ was like, well, it was just sort of ridiculous. Petty shit like that. Hell, the Daedalus featured an honest-to-God _alien_ and what the heck would they do if they found out, anyway? Discharge her? She had the best damn ATA gene that anyone had seen, and Jackie O'Neill was willing to stick up for her, for her right to be on Atlantis, and in charge. So seriously. _Who cared_.

But what she hadn't realized, which, good job, Sheppard - Ronnie still cared. Ronnie cared in the first place, which was kind of a surprise, actually, and she was touched, that her Canadian civilian was still that concerned about a dumb American military law. Emphasis on 'dumb'.

Anyway, Jo had just sort of thought that Ronnie didn't want a romance.

The thing with Ronoa, that wasn't on purpose; sure, she was hot - Jo was pretty sure every single sentient creature could attest to that - but what she felt, that was different. It wasn't even like the thing with Chaya, which, despite that weirdly sappy video she'd never done anything with (near-death experiences made her weird, but she was starting to get used to them), she'd sort of started to forget about. No, this was - this was having a partner, a... for lack of a better word, a 'bro'. Teyla was a good friend, a good fighter, beautiful, strong - Jo looked up to her. Flirted a little, because she knew Teyla was all kinds of not interested. But she was fundamentally feminine, and there had always been a big part of Johanna that... wasn't.

It was why she'd joined the military, even with her half-finished dissertation and the Mensa acceptance sitting in her mailbox like a lead weight. That was a path she could have gone down, and part of her - and not a small part - would have been happy.

She'd joined the Air Force instead.

Thing was, Ronoa _got it_. Teyla would be happy being a farmer all her life, leading her people and living a quiet existence. Ronoa wouldn't be able to settle down like that. She had fighting deep in her blood, at the heart of her, and Jo felt that too, felt this ache and rush whenever she did something physical, like fight or fuck or fly. Ronoa was her battle partner, her comrade-in-arms. There was a charge there, and it was maybe a little sexual. But nothing, not even close, to what Jo felt about Ronnie McKay.

"I don't care," Jo muttered, her lips to Ronnie's neck when she'd pulled her (okay, yanked) out of the medbay and back to her room, their room, Ronnie's stuff had already started migrating because Jo had unquestionably the best suite in all of Atlantis, even if it hadn't started out that way (it just kept... adjusting. Like Atlantis itself wanted the best for her). She'd pushed her up against the door, the wall, the desk, then finally the bed, straddling those wide hips and bracketing Ronnie's trim waist (the one she kept hiding under baggy shirts because shirts aren't sized and fitted for girls like Ronnie) with her thumbs rubbing at the underwire of her bra. "You - goddamnit, Ronnie, I almost told General O'Neill that we were dating, by accident," and she was unprepared for the way this declaration made Ronnie whimper. Huh.

"What..." Ronnie was at a loss for words, which was also interesting, because Jo would've thought she'd be crowing about getting full control of her vocal chords back. But, Jo's hands on her tits probably weren't helping.

"Mmm, she said something about the 'people you come home to', and she was giving Dr. Jackson one of those _looks_. Seriously, they are the least subtle people I know. But then, I guess that's what 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is all about - can't do nothin' about it if it's subtext, even if it's... grossly obvious." Ronnie didn't have anything to say to that, either, which was almost certainly because her bra was now on the other side of the room. "I was about to say I knew, something something cute scientist girls, et cetera. Are you really jealous of Ronoa?"

" _Yes_ ," Ronnie moaned, and Jo grinned with her mouth against one gorgeously perky nipple.

"Just checking," she purred with a cheeky grin, and flicked her tongue along the sensitive nub.

"Ass," Ronnie mumbled.

Jo took that as a suggestion.

Later ( _much_ later), they lay twined in the dark and Jo played with Ronnie's hair, endlessly fascinated by the fluffy brown mop.

"So wait, how did you end up going on a date without knowing it was a date?"

Ronnie put her face in Jo's chest and groaned.


End file.
